P/5-'7 




j^o. 



LOGflL HISTORY 



LOUTHER MANOR 



BY THE LATE, 



. ^ 



.-f'-^' 



REV. JOSEPH A. MURRAY, D.D. 



"\7"II. 



Read Befare Historical Meeting of the Ham- 
ilton Library Association, Carlisle, Pa., 
and Reprinted for the Historical Depart- 
ment. 

To those who are truly interested in the 
early aud reliable history of Pennsylvania, 
it is a matter of regret that we have not 
bad collected together a full and correct 
account of the several manors that were 
in the Province, their locality and limits, 
aud which were so many tracts of land 
set apart exclusively for the Proprietary, 
and not immediately offered for sale. It 
i8 also a matter of regret that so much of 
misapprehension aud misrepresentation 
prevails on this subject. We know that 
there were two manors within the bounds 
of what is now Cumberland county, as we 
have some paper? of an early date that 
clearly show it, and yet we have never 
heaitl of uuy excepting that of Louther or 
Paxtaug, (as it was at first called), and it 
is to be regretted that an error has obtain- 
ed currency in regard to it. Hence at the 







EXPLANATIONS. 



[The initial letters within the limits of the manor indicate portions of Hampden, 
East Pennsboro and Lower Allen townships; the other initials indicate the Stone 
Church and iShiremanstown ; the western boundary of the manor is "the road leading 
from the Conodoguinette to the Vellow Breeches, past the Stone Church or Frieden's 
Kirch, and immediately below Shirmanstown," about four miles from the river; and 
the two creeks extend eastward about "eleven miles," to show what would be the 
greatly increased quantity of land embraced in the manor if it really extended that 
distance from the river.] 



suKgestion of some friends we f arnish the 
following faets. 

Within less than ten years the state- 
ment has been repeatedly published that 
the Louther Manor extended eleven miles 
west of the Susquehanna river, whereas 
we believe that it did not extend much 
more than about one third of that dis- 
tance, or only four miles instead of 
"eleven." 

We do not know what authority existed 
for making such a statement in the first 
instance, as it certainly contradicts Kupp's 
statement, made on the very creditable 
authority of Col. R. M. Grain, in regard to 
the same matter— and his statement of 
1846 must have been then known— and it 
also clearly contradicts the specific details 
of the oritiinal survey, than which better 
authority cannot be cittd. The proof of 
thib we will now give. 

We have an old paper in our collection 
with this endorsement: — '•26th Decem'r 
1764. Warrant for the Resurvey of the 
manor of Liouther, Cumberland county. 
Returned, &e., May 16, 1765. Quantity 
7551 acres, &c." It has the signature of 
John Penu, and is addressed to John 
Lukens, Esq , Surveyor General. (He 
was S. G under the Provincial Govern- 
ment.) It also bears the testimony of 
Daniel Brodhead, Surveyor General, of 
April 1793, as being "& true copy of the 
original." (He was S. Q. under the State 
Government.) This warrant is a long one 
and abounds in interesting statements 
relative to the Indiana, but we will give 
only so much of it as recites the specified 
limits ot the manor in question, which, by 
the way, Was laid out in 1736 by the Deputy 
Surveyor of Lancaster county. It may 
also be here added, that the land included 
in Louther Manor was part of the territory 



acquired by Treaty from the Five Nations, 
at Philadelphia. Oct. 11th, 1736, and it 
wa« the second of the six treaties with 
said Indians for the acquisition of their 
lauds. We now faithfully copy from the 
aforesaid valid authority the proper limits 
of the manor: 'On the west side of the 
Susquehanna river, opposite to John 
Harris' Ferry and bounded to the east- 
ward by the said river, to the northward 
by ConodoRuinet creek, to the southward 
by the Yellow Breeches creek, and to the 
westward by a line drawn north a little 
westerly hom the said Yellow Breeches 
to Conodoguiufct creeks aforesaid, contain- 
ing seven thousand five hundred and 
seven acres or upwards," &c. These 
boundaries correspond with those given 
iu Kupp's history, page 356, where he 
says: "The manor on Conodoguinette 
was, as will appear from the following, 
kindly furnished by K. M. Grain, E^'q , 
surveyed and divided, and sold by the 
proprietors to those first named after the 
No. and acres. This manor embraced all 
the land between the Conodoguinette and 
Yellow Breeches creek, extending as far 
west as the road leading from the Conodo- 
guinette to the Yellow Breeches, past the 
Stone church or Frieden's Kirch, and im- 
mediately below Shiremanstown." Just 
here it may be proper to remark, that Col. 
Cram, who died in 1852, is represented as 
'•more thoroue:hly acquainted with the 
business of the Land Office than any other 
man in Pennsylvania," and served for the 
greater part of half a century as Deputy 
Secretary iu that office. (Men of Mark of 
Cumberland Valley, p. 96.) We also 
know from the same authority, as well as 
old papers in our possession, that the 
Manor of Louther was "surveyed at an 
early dale." Again in 1765, it was sur- 



veyed by John Armstrong and divided 
into eight and-twenty portions, and in 
1767 it was re surveyed by John Lukens. 
As stated, it was divided into twenty- 
eight "Tracts or Plantations," varying in 
size, but the aggregate number of acres in 
them all is about equal to the whole manor 
as originally surveyed. The writer has in 
his possession several of the old papers in- 
dicating the No. of the tract, and the 
name of the original purchaser. These 
papeis bear date of 1772, '73 and '74. 
When Rupp published his History of Cum- 
berland county, nearly forty years ago, 
only No. 4, No. 12, aud part or No. 17 — 
bat three of the twenty-eight — were own- 
owned by any of the heirs or representa- 
tives of the original purchasers; and, on 
this point, the writer cannot say what is 
the fact at present. 

Now, in turning to the Atlas of Cumber- 
land county, carefully prepared from 
actual surveys, and published in 1872, we 
have a plan of the county, having a scale 
of distances, (three miles to the inch), 
aLd from this plan we have here very 
carefully traced so much as includes the 
entire Louiher Manor, hs embraced be- 
tween the creeks and within four miles 
from the river, as well as the land within 
"eleven miles" of it, as indicated by the 
western extension aud termination of 
each creek. The manor proper incloses 
about the eastern half of Lower Allen, 
about the southern half of East Penns- 
boro, and the southeast corner of Hamp 
den townships, containing the quantity of 
land given in the early survey. 

On an avtrage Luther Manor could not 
have embraced more than an area of about 
three miles between the creeks and four 
miies west of the river, as such an area 
would inclose twelve square mile, or 7,680 



6 

acres, and which is really between one 
and two hundred acres more than was 
actnally contained in the manor. 

As something worthy of notice, on the 
plan or map it will be observed that the 
entire land embraced within the true 
limits of the Loutber Manor, is the most 
compact or the very narrowest between 
the two creeks, forming of itself a desira- 
ble Reservation, and from the western 
boandary of the manor, where it touches 
the creeks, each creek begins suddenly to 
divert or incline outward more and more. 
So that, if the manor, as has been repeat- 
edly alleged, really extended eleven miles 
west of the Susquehanna, it would neces- 
sarily have to embrace a vastly larger 
eitent of territory than it realy contained 
or than the actual survey gives it, and 
nearer 30,000 acres than "between seven 
and eight thousand." In addition to the 
land that was only and truthfully in it, if 
it extended westward the distance now 
claimed ot "eleven miles," it would have 
to embrace, besides the half of East 
Penusboro', the entire townships of Upper 
and Lower Allen, nearly half of Hampden, 
a very large part of the large township of 
{Silver Spring, about half of Monroe, and 
a slice of Middlesex, and in Silver Spring 
and Monroe townships the extreme dis- 
tance between the two creeks is about 
ten miles. 

Therefore, to declare as matter of clear 
and veritable history that "the Proprie- 
taries laid off between seven and eight 
thousand acres of land extending eleven 
miles from the river, and between the 
Oonodoguinet and Yellow Breeches creeks, 
for a manor on which settlements were 
forbidden," seems to the writer somewhat 
unfortunate. 

Of course we can imagine a nairow 



strip of land as actually extending eleven 
miles from the river, and as between the 
two creeks, and as embracing the given 
number of acres, "between seven and 
eight thousand." But in this case such a 
stretch of the imagination is certainly not 
allowable. Because the proper and nat- 
urally permanent boundaries of the manor, 
as detailed in the early survey, are: the 
river on the east side, with a well known 
creeh on the north side and no less well 
known creek on the south side, and then 
on the west side "by a line drawn 
from the said Yellow Breeches to Conodo- 
guinet Creeks aforesaid." And the quan- 
tity of land specified in the old surveys as 
existing within these clearly defined 
limits— that of 7,507 acres, or that of 
7,551 acres, and which quantity does fully 
exist therein— could not possibly have 
extended farther westward than "the 
road leading from the Conodoguinet to 
the Yellow Breeches, past the Stone 
Church, and immediately below Shire- 
manstown '■ We can also easily under- 
stand, as both creeks are very crooked, 
that, by following their devious courses 
westward from the mouth of each, for the 
distance of about eleven miles, it might 
probably lead to the point on each creek 
where touches the line drawn by the old 
survey from the one cteek to the other, 
as the termini of the western limit of the 
manor, and this doubtless was the way in 
which the «urvey was originally made, to 
ascertain the acreage of it. But the line 
constituting the western boundary of the 
manor, and which is really its true extent 
from the river, is, as we believe and 
maintain, only four miles from the river, 
in popular and intelligible parlance, and 
no more than tour miles. And to assert 
that it 'extended eleven miles west of the 



8 

river" is alike incorrect and misleading. 
We do not believe that one person in a 
thousand, in bearing or reading such a 
statement, would suppose that the distance 
thus given referred to and meant the 
length 80 far of the serpentine or the in- 
curved recurved course of the creek! Just 
as reasonable would it be to assert that 
Lower Allen township, (pait of which 
forms the southern portion of the manor), 
whose eastern boundary is the Susuqeban- 
na, txtends twenty- five miles west of said 
river, because its southeru boundary is the 
meandering course of the Yellow Breeches 
for about that distance! When, in fact, 
the true length or extent of the township 
from the river is not more than one fourth 
of said distance, or about six miles instead 
of about twenty five. Likewise, accord 
iug to the same common sense method of 
speaking and understanding, the territory 
of Louther Manor, in its extent from 
the river to its western boundary, reached 
but four miles, and not "eleven." 

It is generally understood that the first 
white people came over tne Susquehanna 
about 1730. They were chiefly Scotch 
Irish, to whom the Donegal Presbytery 
sent a supply as early as 1734 But it was 
not until two years afterwards that the 
Mauor of Louther was laid out. Was not 
the land embraced in it previously settled, 
iu part, if not wholly* Is it not reason- 
able to suppose that the first settlers 
would move warily as well as bravely into 
a country belouging to the Indians, and 
be careful not to leave a wide belt of 
unoccupied land between them and their 
eastern frieuds* Was not even squatter 
sovereignty, with its preemptive privil 
fcges, practically observed? And while 
the settlers weie willing in due time to 
purchase the land which they had com- 



9 

menced to improve, yet it was not an easy 
matter to dispossess them, — because they 
had settled upon it, and claimed their 
rights as colonists who had been desired 
to come to the country, and who, as a 
hardy and combative frontier people, 
formed a desirable cordon of defence be- 
tween the savages and the more eastern 
settlers. (The Penn and Logan Corres- 
pondence, Watson's Annals, &c.) 

As evidence that the land subsequently 
contained in Louther Manor had been 
very early settled by the whites, we will 
be excused in giving the following addi- 
tional matter. 

It has been said that about 1724 the 
Delaware Indians moved to the branches 
of the Ohio, and that in 1728 the 
Shawanese, who had been the predomi- 
nating aborigines of our valley, gradually 
followed them. Afterwards French 
emissaries tried to alienate them from the 
English. Consequently the Pennsylvania 
authorities became alarmed, and appoint- 
ed three persons to visit them and per- 
suade them to return. The following 
letter, addressed to one of the three, con- 
tains the inducement to return, and also 
evidence of an early settlement by the 
whites on the west side of the river: 

Peshtank, * Nov. ye 19th, 1731. 

Feiend Peter Chartiere. This is to 
Acquaint Thee that By the Commissioners' 
and the Governour's order We are now 
Going over ISusquehanna, To Lay out a 
Tract of Land between Conegogwainet & 
Shaawna Creeks five or six miles back 
from the River, in order to accommodate 
Shaawna Indians or such others as may 
see fit to Settle there. To Defend them 
from Incroacbmeuts, And we have also 
orders to Dispossess all Persons Settled on 
that side of the River, That Those woods 



10 

may Remain free to ye Indians for Plant- 
ing & Hunting, And We Desire thee to 
Communicate this to the Indiana who Live 
About Allegoning. We conclude 
Thy Assured Ff ds, 

John Wright, 
Tobias Hendricks, 
Sam'l. Blunston. 
This enterprise failed. The Indians 
did not return. But the letter shows that 
the "Tract of Land" mentioned in it is 
the same about which we have been writ- 
ing; that white persons were settled on 
it as early as 1731; and that timber land 
or "woods" really existed there. As the 
Indians did not accept the offei to come 
back, about five years afterwards the 
manor was there laid out. 

It may be of some pertinent interest 
just here to add that, two of the three 
persons selected to visit the Indians who 
had gone westward were James Le Tort 
and Peter Cbartier. The former was a 
Frenchman and Indian trader, who had 
his cabin not far from where Carlisle is, 
and after whom the town spring is named. 
Tbti other was the son of jMartiu Chartier, 
a Frenchman who lived among the 
Shawauese. His son, Peter, (who was 
appointed an Indian trader by the Lan- 
caster court), married a Shawanese squaw, 
and lived at the mouth of the Yellow 
Breeches creek, which was then known as 
the Shawnee creek, presumably because 
occupied by them; but it was also called 
the Vallapasscink , with reference to its 
curvatures, and this name, according to 
Heekewelder, is a Delaware Indian word. 
Not only is the name of these Frenchmen 
perpetuated among us by the Letoit 
spring, but the name of the other is also 
perpetuated in western Pennsylvania by 
Ctiartier creek The other negotiator was 



11 

Edmund Cartlldge, a promineut ludiaa 
trader, whose name occurs in the Colonial 
Records and Pennsylvania Archives, and 
who, in his correspondence with Governor 
Gordon relative to this business, reports 
more favorably of Chartier than of Le Tort, 
though the former at last went over to the 
French, and the latter has been regarded 
as a person of better character. (Penn- 
sylvania Archives, Vol. I., pp. 299, 328. 
Historical Register, Vol. II , p. 250. 
Memoirs of Charlotte Chambers, by her 
grandson, Lewis H. Garrard, p. 12, and 
also Chambersbuig in the Colony and in 
the Revolution, by the same writer, p. 12, 
&c.) 

The foregoing statement we respectfully 
submit to tne candid judgment of those 
who may be interested in the matter. We 
know that to err is human; and if it 
should appear hereafter that our state- 
ment is faulty or inaccurate, we shall be 
glad to revise it, as our sole object is to 
give the truth and nothing but the truth. 

J. A. Murray. 
Carlisle, 1885. 

P. S. — We have also some old docu- 
ments, written and printtid, th'tt indicate 
the existence of such a Proprietary Reser- 
vatiou as "Eden Manor," which embraces 
a few thousand acres of land in the north- 
western portion of what is now Cumber- 
land county. In one of the papers — 
bearing dale of 1746, and signed by "Wm. 
Parsons, Surveyor General," under the 
1 rovincial Government — there is a plan 
of the manor, an oblong square, which 
coctaius a section of the creek and some 
of its tributaries. The distances are giv- 
en, and the number of acres. J. a. m. 

*The same as Paxtang, Pelxlan, Paxton, &c., 
where Harrlsburg now Is. t. a. m. 



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